Issued Capital: 107,219,427
FORTUNE MINERALS REPORTS SUCCESFUL NICO PILOT TESTS
Addition of gravity,
regrind and secondary flotation increases metal recovery to bulk
concentrate and eliminates the need for cyanide facilities in the NWT
London,
ON - March 16, 2011 - Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX-FT) (�Fortune
Minerals� or the �Company�) is pleased to announce successful results for mini-pilot
plant, gravity, and confirmatory flotation tests conducted at SGS
Lakefield Research Limited (�SGS Lakefield�) on samples of ores from the
Company�s 100% owned NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper deposit in the
Northwest Territories (�NWT�). The Company concluded that the addition of gravity, regrind
and secondary flotation facilities at the Company�s proposed NICO
concentrator increases metal recovery during flotation and eliminates the
need to construct cyanide leaching and smelting facilities in the
NWT. This mitigates the duplication of similar unit operations that
are planned to be constructed at the Company�s proposed Saskatchewan
Metals Processing Plant (�SMPP�) near Saskatoon where bulk concentrates
from the proposed mine will be processed to high value metal products.
Elimination of cyanide use at the concentrator will also reduce the
potential for environmental impacts in the NWT related to tailings
storage and effluent treatment, and the change is in keeping with the
wishes of the Tlicho people who own the lands
surrounding the Company�s mining leases and are stakeholders for the
proposed development.
The test work
at SGS Lakefield consisted of investigations to maximize the incremental
recovery of gold to the bulk concentrate that is planned to be shipped
from the concentrator in the NWT to the SMPP for processing to high value
metal products. Prior to the Company�s decision to move the
downstream hydrometallurgical processing facilities to Saskatoon, all of
the processing was planned to be conducted at the NICO site, including
cyanide leaching to recover gold from the cleaner flotation tailings,
autoclave residues, and bismuth leach residues.
Following the 2007 flotation pilot plant, the data was analyzed by the
Company�s consultants, and approximately 6% of the overall recoverable
gold contained in NICO ores reported to the cleaner flotation tailings, and
this material represents
8% of the concentrator ore feed and would be cost prohibitive to ship to
Saskatchewan for processing.
As a result, recovery of the gold that reports to the cleaner flotation
tailings necessitated duplication of the cyanide recovery circuit and
smelting components in the NWT at additional capital cost. To
maintain planned gold recovery, it was necessary to undertake testing of
alternate recovery routes to incrementally increase the gold recovery to
the bulk concentrate without significantly increasing the volume.
First, SGS
Lakefield completed Gravity Recoverable Gold (�GRG�) testing on two
sub-composite ore samples mined during the Company�s 2007 underground
bulk sampling program representing medium gold grade cobalt-associated
and bismuth-associated gold. GRG testing is an industry accepted
approach for predicting the available amount of gold that can be recovered
in a gravity centrifuge and the results indicated GRG recoveries of 11%
and 18% from the cobalt- and bismuth-associated composites,
respectively. These results were then utilised
by a third party gravity centrifugal concentrator supplier to model the
predicted benefit of gravity recovery within the NICO grinding circuit
upstream of flotation by benchmarking the proposed NICO circuit against
the response of existing circuits with similar known GRG profiles.
Because some of the gold would have otherwise been recovered during flotation, the modelling predicted that the recovery benefit would
be approximately 1-4% depending on the mineralization and grade.
Fortune Minerals is using a conservative 2% increase in incremental gold
recovery using gravity for future reserve and resource modelling for the deposit and its financial model.
Second, using
composite samples created for the 2007 pilot test, SGS Lakefield
completed standardized kinetic flotation testing and modelling
to optimize the bulk rougher and cleaner circuit in an effort to minimize
the amount of gold that reported to the cleaner tailings. These SGS
Lakefield proprietary programs are referred to as �MinnovEx�
flotation tests for kinetics and the �Flotation Economic Evaluation Tool�
for simulation. The kinetic parameters were utilized to evaluate
different flotation configurations through the simulation using the
proposed NICO flow sheet and equipment sizing. The model confirmed
that continued use of the primary grinding targets, followed by flotation
in the base case primary circuit, was optimum to maintain overall
recovery of cobalt to the bulk concentrate for shipment to the SMPP
because cobalt recovery decreases with over -grinding. However,
additional incremental gold recovery would be possible by the addition of
a re-grind circuit treating the smaller cleaner flotation tailings
stream, followed by secondary rougher and cleaner flotation, using the
same flotation reagents used in the primary circuit. This secondary
regrind-flotation circuit configuration was tested by locked cycle tests
using a new 50 tonne composite sample prepared
from ore mined during the 2007 NICO underground bulk sampling
program. Results of this testing confirmed base case recovery
assumption in the primary circuit, as well as the incremental increase in
recovery of gold through the secondary-regrind circuit to the bulk
concentrate. Further pilot testing at 400 kg per hour confirmed
that the regrind-secondary flotation circuit could conservatively achieve
additional gold recovery of 2% with only an additional 0.3 to 0.7%
increase in the volume of the bulk concentrate for shipment south. In addition to the increase
in gold recovery, the pilot test also indicated a minor recovery increase
of approximately 1% for cobalt, bismuth, and copper to the concentrate.
The Company
believes that an additional advantage to recovering this gold in the bulk
concentrate is that it will be subjected to pressure oxidation during
downstream processing at the SMPP, which allows for an improvement in the
recovery of gold during leaching. The downstream metallurgical
recovery of gold, cobalt, bismuth, and copper from the increased mass
pull to the bulk concentrate demonstrated by this program has not been
proven, but is strongly supported by results of previous
hydrometallurgical pilot testing. Fortune Minerals therefore
concluded that with the addition of a gravity circuit, regrind circuit,
and secondary flotation for the cleaner flotation tailings, the need to
construct standalone cyanide leaching and smelting facilities in the NWT
is eliminated.
Further, SGS
Lakefield also conducted confirmatory flotation tests at different head
grades on NICO ore sub-composite samples to determine the impact of
cobalt and bismuth recovery from ores with very low cobalt or bismuth
grades, which is predicted to occur in the mine plan infrequently.
Sub-composites were tested at 0.02% feed grade for cobalt and bismuth,
and bismuth recovery was not significantly affected by processing lower
grade ore. The recovery of cobalt to the bulk concentrate from a
sub-composite at a feed grade of 0.02% cobalt was approximately 5% less
than the global recovery utilised to generate
the 2007 reserve calculation that resulted in a life of mine average of
0.12% cobalt. Gold recovery was not impacted in either case based
on locked-cycle tests.
The SGS
Lakefield gravity, regrind and secondary flotation, and confirmatory
tests were conducted under the supervision of Michael Samuels, B.
Eng., Director of Technical Services, Fortune Minerals and Alex Mezei, M.Sc., P.Eng.,
Director, Engineering Technology Services, the Qualified Person for the
purposes of NI 43-101 on behalf of SGS. The flow sheet changes
described herein have already been incorporated into front-end engineering
and design studies completed by Aker Metals, a division of Aker Solutions
that was recently sold to Jacobs Engineering.
Fortune
Minerals had been waiting for the results of the aforesaid test work in
order to use the updated recovery estimates together with the results of
the 37 new drill holes completed at NICO in the 2010 drill program to
prepare an updated Mineral Reserve estimate. P&E Mining
Consultants Inc. is preparing the new Mineral Reserve estimate which is
expected to be completed by mid-April. Based on existing data, NICO
contains Mineral Reserves of 31 million tonnes,
averaging 0.91 g/t gold, 0.12% cobalt, 0.16% bismuth and 0.04% copper,
containing 907,000 ounces of gold, 82 million pounds of cobalt, 109
million pounds of bismuth, and 27 million pounds of copper (see Fortune
news release, dated January 14, 20101).
1For additional information on the
NICO mineral reserves, please see Fortune Minerals� News Release, dated
January 14, 2010 and the information posted for the Company on the SEDAR
website at www.sedar.com. Eugene Puritch,
P.Eng. and Fred H.
Brown, CPG PrSciNat, both of P&E Mining
Consultants Inc., are the Qualified Persons responsible for the NICO
mineral reserves under NI 43-101.
Fortune Minerals
has recently completed a small winter program of condemnation drilling
beneath the NICO mill and camp site, plus geotechnical drilling at the
proposed NICO airport site. No significant mineralization was
identified immediately beneath the NICO plant site.
The NICO
project consists of a proposed mine and concentrator in the Northwest
Territories, located 160 km northwest of the City of Yellowknife. A
vertically integrated hydrometallurgical process plant will also be
constructed near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where NICO concentrates will be
processed to gold dor�, 99.8% cobalt cathode,
99.99% copper cathode and 99.99% bismuth ingot or 99.5% cathode.
Both sites are currently in the environmental assessment process for
permitting. NICO has already been assessed in a positive definitive
feasibility study by Micon International
Limited that was updated in 2008 and shows an attractive rate of return
for the development (see Fortune news release, dated May 8, 2008).
About
Fortune Minerals:
Fortune
Minerals Limited is
a diversified resource company with several mineral deposits and a number
of exploration projects, all located in Canada. The Company is
focused on the development of its NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper deposit
in the Northwest Territories and its metals processing plant in
Saskatchewan. Fortune Minerals owns the buildings and equipment
from the Golden Giant Mine at Hemlo, Ontario,
which have been dismantled, moved, and stored for relocation to
NICO. Fortune Minerals also owns the Mount Klappan
anthracite coal deposits in British Columbia, the Sue-Dianne
copper-silver deposit and other exploration projects in the Northwest
Territories. Fortune Minerals is focused on outstanding performance
and growth of share holder value through assembly and development of high
quality mineral resource projects.
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Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains
forward-looking information. This forward-looking information includes
statements with respect to, among other things, proposed development of
the NICO project, the potential for increasing reserves at the NICO
project, the proposed development of the Saskatchewan Metals Processing
Plant (�SMPP�) and the anticipated recoveries of metals from the NICO
project . Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and
estimates of management at the date the information is given, and is
subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that
could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those
projected in the forward-looking information. These factors
include the inherent risks involved in the exploration and development
of mineral properties, the inherent volatility of metal prices, the
risk that the Company may not be able to arrange the necessary financing to construct and
operate the NICO mine and the SMPP, uncertainties with respect to the
receipt or timing of required permits for the development of the NICO
project and the SMPP, the possibility of delays in the commencement of
production from the NICO project and construction of the SMPP, the risk
that actual recoveries of metals from the NICO project may not be
consistent with test results and other factors. Readers are cautioned
to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information because it
is possible that predictions, forecasts, projections and other forms of
forward-looking information will not be achieved by the Company.
The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date
hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise it
to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.
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